Technical b r Report - International Military Testing Association

Inputs are made are not. For example, in a flir,ht simulator,
Ii we would norm:,.?ll:: have no k'sy of knowina whether the pilot
used an efflnicnt visual scan oattern in checking instrument
readlnm. T!:e snrne cS’cctive ocrformnce could be achieved
by two pilots xlt5 ver:.lnifr'erent instrument scan patterns -one
usinK an cfficl.ent pattern and thus minlr:.lzin~ his work
load, the other compensatlnc for a less efflc.lent pattern by
worklnr harder. Xhen dcall,nr irlth n sinulaton that enables
measurement.of z2ch a 13r;e nur.Ser of aspcctn of vehicle or
system perform,?nce b:: merely speclfvlnf? the parameters to be
measured, it i:: all too e3sv to for17ct about those aspects of
human perforcnnce not directly reflected In machine Inputs.
DS shiftin:: our ennt;nsls fro3 paper-and-?cncil testInK
to the kind of perfor:?nce tests for which t5-e SlxIUlztOr is
such -in appronrizte vehicle, we would qo far toward ceefinr:
the objectives of crltlcs of our current testinK posture,
such as PlcClell?n:! , ~50 tells us to test for competence,
rather t%n intelll~ence, and t5:nt "t5e best tcstlnr: is
criterion s~.cnlln~" !YcClelland, 1073, p. 7) and O'Leary, who
advocates the "';‘:-.e ad*ziantnres of job simulation aptroacfies to
selection over techniques lackinp content validity (O'Leary,
1973, P. 149).
In conclusion, :ie have a lcn:: :qny to TC, ln exploiting:
simulators IS ce2surezent tools, before t:elr one basic
weakness -- innt:6illt:: to zensuye bc!:avlor net directly reflected
in machine inputs -- becmc?:; a truly llnltinlr factor.
By refusing: to tc s!-iackled to psvc!:ozetrlc practices appropriate
only to paper-and-cencll tests, we czn exploit this
powerful tool to zeasum a wiee ?nnpe of Individual snd team
behavior, obtalnlnrr relevanti relin!)fc, valid, and socially
useful data at rr.odest cost.
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